comparison question

in java, there is a compareTo method that returns the ascii difference of two strings, and i was wondering if there is a similar method in c++.

Yes there is a similar method in C++.

Maybe what you're looking for is strcmp.

C++ strings can be compared like ints:

Code:

---

string a = "something";
string b = "something else";

if ( a < b ) {
  cout << "a is smaller\n";
} else if ( a == b ) {
  cout << "a and b are the same\n";
} else {
  cout << "b is smaller\n";
}

---

C strings can't, and you have to treat them like arrays of characters:

Code:

---

int compareTo( char a[], char b[] ) {
  for ( int i = 0; a[i] && b[i] && a[i] == b[i]; i++ );

  if ( a[i] == '\0' ) {
    return -1;
  } else if ( b[i] == '\0' ) {
    return 1;
  } else {
    return a[i] - b[i];
  }
}

int rc = compareTo( a, b );

if ( rc < 0 ) {
  cout << "a is smaller\n";
} else if ( rc == 0 ) {
  cout << "a and b are the same\n";
} else {
  cout << "b is smaller\n";
}

---

Or use strcmp from string.h since it does the work for you:

Code:

---

int rc = strcmp( a, b );

if ( rc < 0 ) {
  cout << "a is smaller\n";
} else if ( rc == 0 ) {
  cout << "a and b are the same\n";
} else {
  cout << "b is smaller\n";
}

---